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Pick plums as they ripenEase onions from the soil with a fork to prepare them for harvestingFinish pruning trained forms of apple trees like cordons, espaliers and fansWater crops regularly, especially during hot weatherLift marrows

Harvest young marrows but leave some to fully ripen for storage and winter useTrim leaves from strawberries that have finished fruitingPlant out rooted strawberry runners into new bedsPick early varieties of apple as they ripen including 'Discovery

Pick ripe apples and pearsFinish harvesting marrows, squashes, onions and potatoesSow broad beans and hardy peasPlant out garlic clovesEarth up leeks to cover and blanch their stemsCut away fruited blackberry canes at soil level and tie in new ones

up chicory roots to force in the darkPlant new fruit trees, bushes and cane fruitsCollect seeds from garlic and chivesStart pruning apples, pears and figsTake hardwood cuttings from currants and gooseberriesSpread compost or rotted manure onto beds

Check fruits in store for signs of rot or deteriorationPlant new fruit bushes and cane fruitsTake hardwood cuttings from healthy fruit bushes, including currants and gooseberriesWinter prune fruit trees, including apples - but save plum pruning

trees that are worth looking into. Fruit trees are grown on different rootstocks and, depending on which one you choose, these regulate the eventual height of the tree - useful not just for small gardens, but also because it means that the best apples

). 4) The quince.Correct: only one is a fruit.We have just harvested quinces from a neighbour's tree - the one that I planted is only a couple of years old and too pre-pubescent to fruit. The quince (Cydonia oblonga) is a rather neglected tree native

it into growth up to eight weeks early. Top up bird baths with fresh water dailyRecycle your Christmas tree at the local council tipCheck closing dates for any seed catalogue discountsAround the gardenSquash mistletoe berries into apple tree branchesCut down old

couple of thrushes look curiously at the small gaggle of blue/ great/ long-tailed tits in the apple tree. Four wood pigeons hunch, bored, in the big sycamore tree. I think there’s even a robin perched way off in the distance. I only give it five minutes

The other day there was a tweet* from Gardeners' World regarding a post I wrote on this blog a couple of years ago, about my top five trees for small gardens.While I still stick with those five I thought I might try and add a further five just